Of love, life and the internet

It’s been a while since I blogged - which is good news I guess, as my blogging activity level is inversely proportionate to the activity levels at Gaboli.

Looking back at the last 60 days there’ve been many experiments…

Rechargeitnow.com

Sitting in a campus in Jamshedpur away from the city, I suddenly needed to re-charge/ top-up the pre-pay balance on my phone. I was hesitant to do it on just any random site but I did use rechargeitnow.com and it worked very smooth. Got Rs. 444 on my airtel in 2-3 minutes..

Competition

My emarketing classes ended with a competition between two groups of about 20 people each. The basic brief was that each section had to create a website that was (a) free and (b) would support analytics. In 3 weeks time the groups had to maximise the number of unique visitors on their site.

With the usual ‘free’ tools at hand - word of mouth, email marketing, seo, social media… both teams had around 1400-1500 unique visitors by the end of the competition. As expected SEO had no effect in such a short timeframe. It was mainly email, social media and word of mouth which led to these visitors. This was expected for any ‘web startup’ with initial traffic from friends and family.

One new tool that I discovered through one team was an email address generating tool. You type in a keyword and the tool crawls the web to find email addresses linked to that topic. I don’t know how relevant or effective it was - but it explained how spamming was so easy these days.

More interesting to note was the dynamics amongst the groups. In the final semester, very few people were motivated to put in too much effort as most people were also looking for jobs. Team leaders had very little influence on the teams and communication often broke down. As with most projects in life, it’s more about the people involved than the task at hand.

This leads to the more complex issue - on the web, how do you jump to that next level and get into that ‘growth’ stage.  It’s also an interesting challenge which I’ve been discussiing with Anshul who’s been running youthkiawaaz.com. A journalist driven blogging site with well written content focused on youth in India.

Hiring Interns in a startup

We’re experimenting with interns this summer. Mostly, summer interns for marketing, delivery management etc. One fell sick with jaundice and the others are yet to join… many people advise that it’s probably not worth the effort. Keen to see what our experience will be by August.

Technology

Using a CMS plugin to solve IE6 compatability issues - bad decision. Browser compatability continues to torment most of the web development world. In a country like India, you can’t ignore IE6 and recently safari has started becoming significant enough to warrant attention. The other consistent complaint across all online marketing projects is the ever widening gap between ‘clicks’ and ‘visits’. Analytics reveal only 50% of the paid traffic from adwords and facebook actually turn into ‘visits’. The reasons provided for this are not really sufficient in my mind. They say visits are not recorded for people that have javascript disabled. If that were the case then on average most CMS features would not load for 50% of the people - and that’s not consistent with the recorded bounce rate.

Affiliate networks have long complained that India is not suited for the ‘click’ model anyway… One way around this is to get into a ‘cost per lead’ model - but then the quality of the leads become truly doubtful.
Sanitiser update: Godrej did a free sample sachet sample for Protekt - their hand sanitiser brand. Rs. 2 for the sachet. The radio is full of ads for this product as well. Although I still see the gap in the institutional market, very few companies, buildings have the dispensers so far but at the same time the swine-flu effect is dying.

Way back in June last year I had profiled this little known start up in my blog - aardvark.

I’m not saying I told you so…. but looks who’s gone and bought them for $50 mn.

Now - there’s a Indian equivalent that I profiled as well, Voicetap. I’m not saying anything here…. but I’m sure those guys are tap dancing away at the moment.

What’s been buzzing in the world of social networks?

- Google Buzz: Well my class unanimously agreed that Google Buzz is late in the game but Google had no choice. Read Jeremiah’s take on this strategy and the impact on the stakeholder spectrum (facebook, twitter, SEO etc.). Personally, I agree with both but I’m intrigued about how this fits in with the story for Google Wave.

Social Gaming
- A quick mention of ibibo. One of the largest desi social networks. Recently they’ve launched a marketing blitz on ‘Why play akele? Play social games at ibibo’. Reminds me of a childhood PJ. What did the lonely banana say to the other banana. “I am a-kela“. But hats off to ibibo for the first strong positioning statement from an Indian social network. Desi Martini, Big Adda, Fropper, iTimes… they’ve all tried bollywood masala and failed to make a dent into facebook and orkut market share

- We all know Zynga (of Farmville and Mafia Wars fame). Well they’ve opened an office in Bangalore and that made front page news in all major dailies.(that’s a bit much!). However our very own Rodinhood has lots to say about the space. (Side note: Rodinhood is by Alok Kejriwal of of c2w and g2w fame. I met him way back in 1999 when I was still in college. He treated us to a nice breakfast and was beaming proud of running one of the few dot coms to survive the crash. I guess he realised the B2B mantra way before the rest of the online junta)

Love is in the air
For some reason I added ‘Love’ in the title of this blog. With V day last week, I guess I have to give it due share of importance. Check out this winner ad from Google. (and yes… I couldn’t resist the pink and red border)

Paying the Price of working in India
Paypal got suspended in India. That’s huge. Reserve Bank of India - would you have done that to an ‘offline’ player like ICICI?

Is your brand listening?
Real time feedback is the single largest lesson for brand positioning on the internet. I was pleasantly surprised with NEO Sports recently. Have a look at this twitter conversation and how quickly you can win back trust just by acknowledging the customer respectfully. (Read bottom to top)

@ameyamhatre thnkfully, they’ve acknowledged my protests. let see how they mend their ways.

Thats prompt,thanks!RT @NEO_Cricket: @nareshb all your points have been noted and ll be fwded to the concerned person. Thnks for ur feedback

an appeal to ur reason (& MBA bosses) @NEO_cricket : adding an extra second to two to ur ad slots don’t increase a brand’s mindshare

wud @MMXSurprise like it if I don’t buy their xcllent FB fone just cos @NEO_cricket ’s prgrmming (cutting short coverage for ads) sucks?

to brands advertising on @NEO_cricket : Watch where you r treading, you are causing resentment amongst your customers

a sincere msg to @NEO_cricket : not allowing a proper closure to an over by stretching ads is not world-class programming

Social Media Marketing - Welcome to India!

Hello Readers,

At Gaboli, we’re conducting a survey for all MBA alumni in India. This is in association with the ex Dean of Alumni Affairs, Delhi University.

It’ll take 5-7 minutes and I’ll be happy to share the results with anyone interested. So if you completed a MBA from India Click Here. The deadline is Feb 14th!

WYSIWYG is one of my favourite acronyms. In the last few days, we’ve been consulting a private equity company on implementing a Wiki based knowledge platform. On the top of my google apps account, I see a google ad for a rich text editor/ WYSIWYG based platform.

Anyway, if we’ve spoken recently, you’ll agree my entrepreneur journey is constantly full of inspection, introspection, retrospection etc. One change I see is that it’s more important to be decisive on all matters in life and hence, judging where people (read customers, suppliers, partners) stand on the various spectrums in life is a big part of the game. When you’re in a company, you take a person for face value because he/she has a designation - like or not, your relationship is governed to an extent.

As an entrepreneur I’ve come to value genuiness at a whole new level. I’d rather have a potential customer bang the phone down rather than have us work out a consultative 40 page proposal, only to hand it off to their favourite vendor to copy. (Yes, you know who you are!)

So I wonder what kind of people are living life WYSIWYG? Any theories? (Leave a comment below). My theory is that there is something about corporate culture and management education that kills the WYSIWYGness in people. I don’t say that people don’t have moral values but the corporate mask is definitely weird.

- I’m reminded of post MBA interviews when the prescribed body language and tone was ‘I’m amazingly qualified for this job but hey I don’t really need it.’
- Ever asked a MBA alumni on tips for interview and heard them say “Just be yourself”?
- Companies are now faced with this dilemma too. Brands spend billions on their propaganda (read positioning) but lo and behold the wonders of the web. The party’s almost over. Catch Inc’s story on you’ve been yelped! With Yelp, customer feedback is immediate and all pervasive. To paraphrase ex Forrestor Analyst, Jeremiah.. You can’t hide behind the pro-corporate hyperbole for long. Information asymmetry is on it’s way out…. Open yourself to living life - WYSIWYG.

Sabsebolo.com

Discovery of the week. Actually, it’s Feb 2, 2010. I can afford to say, discovery of the decade!

Scenario - it was 20 minutes to a client call. Client wanted it 3 way.. and once again I was shuddering at the thought of paying Rs. 450 to airtel for a conference bridge for 30 mins. So our good friend DB suggested sabsebolo. Signed up in seconds. Immediately you get your permanent telephone bridge, access code and local access numbers for all major metros.

The line was clear. No issues in joining the bridge. You get to hear a message from the sponsor for 5 seconds before the call starts. For this service, I would be willing to hear 5 sponsor messages! I still get nightmares about sales conference calls over the expensive doorsabha conference bridges. Web 2.0 and just works technology.. gotta love it.

Did I forget to mention - it’s free!

Shabaash Sabeer .. this one is seriously hot .. may you make 400 more!

Teaching

It happened sooner in life than I expected. I’ve started teaching. It’s only once a week but nonetheless - it’s probably 10 years earlier than I thought.

The course is on e-marketing and its in the final semester for MBA students. Two sections of 50 students each. Each lecture is about 2 hours long. There’s the prescribed course material which couldn’t possibly be more ‘offline’. So I generally add in snippets of gyaan from real life experience. New experience for me and here are some of the highlights:

- After the first day, wife’s first question “Was one section better than the other?”. I look at her in disbelief “How did you know?”.. Gets back into her Mac with a knowing nod “Always is.. Al-ways is the case”

- Delhi to Gurgaon drive takes half the time at 8:10 in the morning on a Saturday
- Indian students can spend 3-4 hours on the internet every day, but barely a few seconds outside email and orkut
- The next biggest thing on the net is job sites.
- Back benchers seem to make the most interesting contributions to discussions
- Students rattle off definitions of jargon alarmingly well. As soon as I ask for an example.. they’re stumped.

Oh well. I’ve started Bill Gates’ recommended book for teachers Work Hard, Be Nice. Wisely said, the problems of the education sector is rarely about the students and mostly about the capability of the teachers.

Courtesy Aditya ‘Dean’ Dikshit and Rajat Maaker, I’ve found the inspiration to overcome inertia and come back to my blog. Rajat says I need to write down my predictions so that one day I can say ‘I told you so’. But the tipping factor on this lazy, second saturday of the month, afternoon was the movie ‘The Crupier’. It’s about a writer who gets a job with a casino - takes part in a robbery scheme but still manages to place his bets well enough to pull it off.

So here’s my piece today on taking bets in life or more specifically - in business.

Latest Opportunity Obsession:
To make a short story long, during our visit to the US in September, I noticed the prevelance of hand sanitiser gel dispensers in almost every public facility - airports, hotels, public bathrooms, lounges, corporte offices etc. etc. Not to forget, the small travel size bottles in almost every lady’s purse. Then you think about the convenience factor and that once someone starts using it, it’s hard to stop. Think about the scare factor - Mothers concerned for their kids. Lifebuoy soap sales are up 30-40% since they linked their advertisements to prevention of H1N1. Swines…

Now in India, within the last 45 days I’ve seen 3 new big brands entering in the space and the radio in Pune and Bangalore (at least) are constantly playing ads. However, the market is huge and still in the nascent to growth stage. Plenty of bucks to be made. Hotels, Offices, Schools, Restaurants are still open fields. Heck - Let me go ahead and make my audacious bets.

- I predict the market will grow significantly for the next 5-7 years.
- The urban institutional sales will peak in about 18-24 months.
- Once that has happened, some ‘chik shampoo’ dude will come along and introduce sachet size packets for sanitiser gel and sell them for Rs. 1 (or thereabout) to consumers. Middle Class Mother’s will start putting a packet in lunch boxes for the kids. The rich kid’s schools will have dispensers anyway
- A new player will emerge through a quick gain in market share. This player will either be bought out or will diversify heavily within its first 3 years.
- In 2015, free packets will be distributed to the poor (ok ok…too much)

Quoting the line from Rocket Singh - ‘Risk to spiderman bhi leta hai… main to sirf salesman hoon.’ Ok - that didn’t really make sense (…In the movie or in real life)

My other prediction is the boom for Single Malt Whiskey in India: No Brainer!

To conclude the post, my biggest bet is now on context based social networks. Large - small, generic - branded, public - private… Every single trusted relationship or network will be moving some parts of their interactions and transactions online. With the diversity in consumer tastes, preferences, needs and desires there’s place for a quite a few people to help provide those platforms and tools.

People say ‘there can only be one Facebook, one Twitter, one Google Wave’. My only answer is that large corporations by definition are ‘feature focused’ to cater to mass markets. Small startups find opportunities in being ‘customer focused’. A few marquee customers, some references and you’re ready to roll.

3 years from now, I could be eating sour humble pie .. but then the bet’s worth it

Got a first taste of the startup scene in Delhi at bcd7. My brother recommended the event and it turned out to be a pretty good Sunday. Free breakfast, Free lunch .. Free T Shirt - you can’t go wrong! For the tweeters/ twitterers(#bcd7)

Overall, I was impressed.

The host - International Management Insitute.

The host B. school IMI was impressive and the entrepreurship club (Ecell) seems very progressive. They have been doing live projects with startups (next one in November). There’s a John Mullens seminar coming up. Top that with barcamp and I give them full marks.

My 3 favourite startups - phokatcopy, videotap and imo

1. Phokatcopy - A startup is as good or bad as the founding team. The ideas will change, the model will get modified - so it’s basically what the people are like. That’s where I believe that Harsh Narang has what it takes to make this a good business. The company essentially provides free paper (good quality, non-wood based) to the photocopy wallahs at the colleges. The paper has ads on one side and they are meant to use the back side to copy. If the student spends Rs. 20 or more on phokat copy, he/she can re-deem that money through mobile talk time, ice creams, clothes etc. Every 100th phokatcopy user wins an ipod.  The advertising medium is novel - repeat viewing for same ad - extremely targeted for the segment. Every player in the game is incentivised.
2. Voicetap- The basic premise here is that they provide access to experts for any and every subject. So in case you’re not getting any joy from google or you’d rather talk to a person then all you have to do is add getafixx@voicetap.in to your gmail contacts and say ‘hi’ in the chat window. Young dynamic team. Look out for a new site and launch in Jan. They’ve got a phone based model as well. Their revenue model is based on payments from corporates for the branding they get out of promoting their experts.
3. Imo - Out of 50 finalists at TC50, there were about 48 from US and these guys were the only ones from India. The company has made an iphone app which can then use the phone like a joystick or mouse for PC games. The future versions aim to make it as good as the wii experience for any PC game. The went on to win the best presentation at TC50. Watch the video on the site - it’s pretty funny!

While some people were asking ‘What’s TC 50?’, for me this company is the hottest thing in India right now. Keep an eye on these kids!

Here are the top results from TC50 this year.

I’m sitting here in India now and thought I’d follow up with Part II.

Here were the inspiring moments.

1. Discovery of Shiply.com - (beautiful, poetic, stroke of genius)… basically the funda is that if you want to ship anything (ranging from a small table lamp to a few streets down all the way to all your household belongings to another country) to anywhere then this site rocks. You put the basic information of what you’re sending and where and you will have shipping agencies bid for the project. I shipped a chest of drawers from north west London to South East London for about 15 quid. amazing. once again - simple user interface.. no confusion.. got the best dealer out there.

2. Meeting celebrities - Sold some good furniture and knick knacks to this young lady. As we put the stuff in her car I noticed a cricket helmet.. got chatting and turns out she’s this mega superstar cricketer. Kicking myself for not taking an autograph.

3. Landlady - Long story short, I had to slimey-ly bypass my property agent during the August long weekend to go get my security deposit from the landlady. She was an orphan from WW2 sent to UK from Czechoslovakia. She’s got a broken spine, kidney failure, she can barely walk. When I walked into her house it was almost as if it were a film set from the 1960s. She sat chain smoking as we chatted about her grandkids and my moving woes. She’s being sued by a previous estate agency where we had initially contracted but got acquired in the interim.  Anyway - kind soul.. gave me the whole deposit. God Bless.

Other interesting pieces:

- Barclays bank at first told me that non EU residents can’t have a bank account in the UK and I would need to shut the account or open a ‘high charges’ offshore account with them. On the day I was leaving, a different branch was able to change my address to my new India one and rubbished the earlier advice.

- Seven Seas has yet to tell me the expected date of arrival for my stuff. They had estimated 77 days on their site and it’s been about 45 days already.

- I’m designing creative solutions for vengeance on the property agent. Once I’m a millionaire, I’ll hire a private investigator… etc etc..

- After London, my wife and I went for a holiday in the US on US airways. No major goof-ups, but I have to say that is by far the worst service I have seen. My fears were confirmed when the immigration officer said “It’s not a joke. I will never let any of my family fly that airline”

- British Gas, Virgin Media sent refund cheques to our previous address a few weeks after we left. It’s quite a pain dealing with that sitting far away. Council tax refund took 3 weeks as well.

Hope that helps some poor souls who have to go through moving houses. That over - here’s to a new life back in India!

Aug 14 - Happy independence day Pakistan and advance wishes to India.

Been a busy time - elder bro’s wedding in Delhi. Now back to UK for final pack and move (I’m nearly independent). Before I get to my main topic, here’s a bit of my usual randomness:

- My TV was bought by a photographer whose last assignment involved Indian vineyards and Chinese surfers. Talk about the offline long tail!
- I’ve become hooked to the US TV show, Entourage. Better late than never.
- I’m having shouting matches with the estate agent whilst I attempt to sell some of our stuff. Not easy being a charming salesman when someone’s stealing your deposit.

So here’s the serious bit. I hereby present to you: The OLLATI Guide to moving outside the UK - Online! (Let’s begin..)
- Mobile Phones: My wife and I are with O2 for mobile. I was on a simplicity plan and the helpline lady suggested that I just convert my number to a pre-pay rather than have to give 30 days notice to cancel my simplicity account. Great suggestion - bonus points to her. My wife’s on an iphone contract which is water tight so we’re going to live with that one for a while.
- Broadband and Landline: Virgin was relatively painless and agreed to cancel our contract a few short of the initial agreement since we were moving abroad. I can’t image BT or any other provider being that nice.
- Utilities: Thames Water had a good online form for movers. We need to call them with our meter reading on our last day. British Gas was not so ‘internet friendly’ for people moving abroad. They only catered to moves within the UK - so had to make a phone call for that one!
- Council Tax: It was a simple online form but I had to call Camden council to actually process the paperwork. Turns out we have a credit balance (!!). Anyway - short email for authorisation .. hope to see that moolah soon!
- Income Tax: Apparently 2/3 of people leaving UK do not claim a tax refund. On average people leaving are due £700 in income tax refund. Very simple and friendly section online- http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/refund-reclaim.htm. When we called the office, they sent the case for assessment and so let’s see how this works out for us!
- Shipping: I look at several online services and got quotes from many. For some 3 weeks notice was too less. The quotes for about 10 boxes ranged from £150 - 600. While price was a big consideration, I also found Seven Seas to be the most responsive, the most friendly online interface. The box deliveries were prompt on the next day in the hourly slot they emailed beforehand. The online reviews that I have read are mixed. For a relatively straightforward case (no midway change of plans), I’m hoping they’ll do an OK job. I’ve asked for Door to Depot cause it’s much cheaper and they allow more weight per box. There will be charges to pay at the other end but I’m hoping it will be less than the £80-100 they ask us to budget
(the best part of the seven seas site was they offer an income tax refund service based on no refund-no payment. Their tax consultant on the phone was very polite as well)
- House Contract: This is the sensitive one. The landlady is very old and hence we deal with the agent. We’ve definitely been misled on our contract. During signing and the renewal we had asked to include a 6 month break-clause in our contract. This was inserted and when we exercised the break clause during month 9 in the 12 month term, the estate agent insists that we could only exercise the break clause at month 6 (not a day before, not a day after!!). Anyway, I know how to read English - that’s not what our contract says. Two lawyers (one independent, one friend) agree with my interpretation, so it may be that we’ll have to go to court over the security deposit. Apparently - this 6 month thing has become a common dispute around the break clause in London tenancy contracts. The recurring theme is poorly drafted contracts with ambiguous wording (I smell a rat or two).A great discovery was the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme. There are big penalties attached to the landlord/ agent in case they don’t comply. http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/tenancydepositschemes.
- County Court: to understand on how to make a small claim, this artcile was useful - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/article.html?in_article_id=417663&in_page_id=5. I’ve been trying to look online for a good/ cost effective lawyer. This site promised to help, but never heard back http://www.qualitysolicitors.com/find-a-solicitor/locations/find-solicitors-london.html
- Selling second hand stuff: This is the interesting part. My experience with online classifieds.

1. In London, there’s no beating gumtree. The interface, the features, the service may be perfect - but the classified service will only be as good as the network. Half of London is on gumtree. The analytics around the number of views is very welcome.
2. Craigslist was the simplest and easiest for posting and ad.  
3. OLX allowed me to upload as many pictures as I wanted - that was important for someone who has many things to sell
4. Vivastreet was mediocre in all senses
5. Gumtree only allowed 3 photos and was charging for posting an ad for house rentals. Not so happy with that.
6. For specialist stuff, like my 4 pet terrapins (cooter, columbus, baba and chutki), I was advised to advertise on specialist forums (with a 1980s design and interface) - but it worked! the offer I received was about 3x the best offer for gumtree.
7. Separate ads worked better than the combined ‘house clearance’ ad.
8. TV and microwaves are hot items - several enquiries!
9. Anyone want to buy a 1964 Encyclopedia Brittanica?

That’s all from the OLLATI guide. Happy Moving! (or as they say in India - Shifting!)

By the time the author finished it was Aug 15… Independence Day in India. Not quite there yet in London.

The following is an email interview of Fabrice Grinda, CEO of OLX. While I’m new to the space of online classifieds, I think these guys are on the right track. All the best to them!

Question: Tell us more about OLX story - who are the people, what was the inspiration, what motivates you about the space?

The decision to start OLX came from the observation of 5 large trends in the world:
1. A transition from offline media consumption to online media consumption.
2. A transition from offline advertising to online advertising.
3. A transition from paid business models to free online ad supported business models.
4. Emerging market growth with both GDP per capita and online media consumption growing faster in the developing world than the developed world.
5. An ongoing and massive disruption in the $100 billion classifieds space away from newspapers first to paid vertical sites then to free horizontal classified sites. As that trend was largely underway in the US and Western Europe, but at its infancy in the developing world, we felt there was a unique opportunity to build a next generation free classified site for the world.

Beyond the macro trends, we love the business. I am an economist at heart and I find it incredibly gratifying to be giving opportunities to people to trade goods, find jobs, houses, etc. all for free! By being free we are growing the market and providing opportunities to people who would have never had them given the costs of print ads.

My partner Alec, Amar, the Indian country manager and I all have auction backgrounds and love marketplace businesses with user generated content.

Question 2. How do you see OLX differentiating itself from well established brands - craigslist in US, gumtree in UK, slando in Eastern Europe etc. Do you have a vision on how the company will shape up in 3-5 years time?

We feel there are significant opportunities for product and business model innovation in the space.

Business model wise, we are 100% free to post and intend to remain free to post. Craigslist, Gumtree, etc. have started charging for jobs, real estate and other categories in certain cities. We feel that charging limits the number of ads on the site which we is a detriment to the user experience. We want our users to find whatever it is they are looking for.

From a product perspective, we aspire to be as good in every vertical as the best paid vertical sites. Already we have a number of innovations relative to many of our competitors:
· We have a fantastic mobile version such as http://m.olx.in reachable from any cell phone.
· We allow users to promote their listings automatically on social networks.
· We have a rich WYSIWYG editor allowing users to create colorful postings without knowing HTML.
· We support photos and videos.
· The site is multilingual even within countries with 39 languages supported.
· We have powerful search functions in real estate and cars.

Question 3. For an online buyer-seller marketplace, increasing participation from both sides is a chicken and egg problem. How do you go about solving that?

We have solved the problem in 4 ways:
· We spend a fair amount on online marketing.
· We run classifieds for many high traffic sites such as Friendster, MySpace Latin America, Sonico and Hindustan Times.
· We approach real estate brokers, car dealers and head hunters to convince them to give us feeds with their content.
· We have acquired many free classified sites in the past few years to help us reach critical mass faster. Mundoanuncio.com in Spain is an example of one such acquisition.

4. Tell us what you specifically think about the online classifieds industry in India - the potential, the challenges and any unique observations you may have made.

India is still a young classifieds market. Contrarily to the US and Western Europe newspapers are still growing their circulation. Online classifieds is a small and relatively new category with a lot of potential. We have had to make many adjustments to adapt to local mores including adding Hindi support, focusing on mobile and creating a matrimonial and a paying guest category.